Wednesday, January 30, 2013

This idea of doing something like this has been in my head for quite some time after seeing these on Anne's blog.

Finally I got it done and there are some regrets to it. I think my filling needs some changes. It's tender, but a bit too tender for me, it doesn't fall apart, but.. then.. maybe I should just skip the egg, give the mince more workout, because I used frozen mince, which tends to be softer than fresh. But it was well received by my kids and Lydia could eat up one large roll herself and asking for more, LOL.

Monday, January 28, 2013

When I saw this recipe long ago… wooah, it looked pretty expensive. Dried scallops are not cheap and so is roast pork. I have sort of forgotten about it until 2 hours before dinner time.

I was surfing the net looking at pictures of cauliflower, but don’t know why this picture of Sonia’s was included in the search. It looked familiar and I clicked it to view it again after so long. Haiya! I have everything on hand. I just took out a big chunk of roast pork to come to room temp thinking of reheating it in the oven later. Then, No no no, no reheating, I’ll be using the roast pork in this dish tonight.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Friday, January 25, 2013

This is another treat I made for my demo. It was such a coincidence that I made so much stuff with nuts, LOL. Guess I went nuts this year.

This idea came in a sudden and I merged the idea of baklava with the popular CNY goodie that is the peanut puff (Kok Chai). Crispy fragrant pastry skin with sandy peanut filling. Ahh, Heaven for me. Baked rolls uses much less fat than deep fried.and again, peanut with ghee is match made in heaven. Yaya, I didn't use phyllo, but popiah skin is almost like it... just treat it like it :)

Thursday, January 24, 2013

As some of you knew, I won a baking competition recently and one of the gifts was a course voucher at Academy of Pastry Arts. At first, I thought, the voucher will be wasted as I need to travel to KL again to attend it, and time plus distance didn't seem to permit.

Things happened with some twists and turns... I managed to grab a course on a weekend where we happen to be in KL for a wedding. And it was the right course, chocolate class. Of all the things that I can learn by myself, this is the one thing that I truly dare not attempt, Chocolate Tempering. It was an enjoyable 2-day course and I learnt the most important thing of all, how to temper chocolate. Besides that, I took home with me 6 delicious recipes, plus a big box of handmade chocolates!

FYI, that was REAL chocolate. Not the same like the budget friendly compound chocolate that I normally use that can be melted and used as I like it. Couverture chocolate is a bit temperamental to use, but absolutely delicious to eat.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

A lot of people like having peanuts for Chinese New Year because of the name that sounds like 'grow'. It's a lot cheaper to make these yourself than buying. Here, where raw materials aren't very cheap, I got mine at RM8.50/kg. And I chose to bake them instead of frying

If you love snacking on peanuts, give this a try, you might get addicted.
I have already hidden these from my husband.... LOL

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

I love kuih makmur. Melty and buttery on the outside, sugary peanutty on the inside! Heaven!

I was introduced to this cookie by my ex colleague Hashita. Once bitten, never shy! I was crazily in love with it and was searching around for one that will match Hashita's mom's. Sadly, none!
Most tasted rather firm, rather than melt in the mouth. Even though the bought cookies used ghee as well, but it's not really that melty, compared to the ones Hashita gave me.

When I first made these 10 years ago, I toasted the flour, even when nobody told me so. I don't remember why I did that, but I think it's because of an advice I heard from an old friend that sunning the flour makes cakes lighter, and so I chose the toast instead of sunning, LOL. It's much quicker!
But then recent years after reading blogs, I do read some recipes calling for the flour 'disangai', that means to be toasted. ah-ha, so that step of mine was actually correct!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Thanks for all the support, be it with your presence at the exhibition or mentally through the encouraging words you left for me. Thank you all!
It was a great success and although being jittery after a long break from 'public speaking', I'm glad I got it done properly. It made me feel I was once teaching in school again, LOL.

For those who couldn't make it to the live demo, and would want have the recipes, don't worry. This week I will share 3 of the recipes to you. Today will be the first one.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

I just made this few days back because after I discovered this leaf was available at my neighbour's I wasn't free to try it out, because I had to get an old hen. The local lingo calls it "Pensioned Chicken" because it has retired from its egg laying job.

I think most of you may not be familiar with the puding leaf. Generally, in Malaysia the puding plant is the garden croton. When I first posted that I found the puding leaf on Facebook, I was asked questions whether I was refering to the garden croton. But in Negeri Sembilan, puding plant is not, it is a magenta leafed plant that is from the same family as edible Amaranth (Yeen choy, Bayam). Some do plant it for ornamental purposes because of the colour contrast it gives to the landscape. This puding plant is used to cook rendang, some dish that you can only find in this state

Friday, January 18, 2013

My family never eats out during Chinese New Year, due to the heavily inflated price that is often called as crazy. Hence, I never ate 'yee sang' until I was 16, and I went out with friends for dinner during this festive period. I felt it was delicious, but chickened at eating raw fish, that was long ago..... now I eat sashimi like a shark.

For those who have no idea what is 'yee sang', it's a festive Chinese Salad that is made up of raw fish (shashimi) tossed with fine strips of vegetables and crisps in a sweet and sourish dressing. It's a popular Chinese New Year dish in both Malaysia and Singapore. During the tossing, one should say all the nice things, wishing everybody prosperity and everything that is good. The higher you toss, the better it is. So, it can get kinda messy if you have friends like mine, who likes to say non sensical things during the tossing and hence the laughing and subsequent mess. LOL.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

My son, my 19M son, saw the belly coming out from the oven. He then rubbed his belly and said yum yum yum. Througout dinner, he kept on pointing to this dish and ate quite a few pieces.
Reuben loves it!

I roasted this when he was napping but before I was done, he was awake! Was so worried when I was transporting it to and from the table to baste and oven to roast.

I didn't use Chinese wine to marinate this, instead I went with Rum. I like the smell of rum and how it mingles well with fruits... seriously smelling good while baking. The rum was a nice change.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

I'm getting jittery!! LOL.

I'm participating in the Malaysian Food Festival (no no, the the blogging event that I'm organizing).
It's a food ingredient exhibition that has food companies promoting their products. One of the participating companies is QBB Ghee. I was approached by Chef Ryan Khang to be part of the team. It's a great honour!

What I'll be doing is, I'll be conducting a cookie baking workshop using QBB ghee.
My first public demonstration.
I've done demos before, but that was with my students back in school, it's not the same, LOL. Just 20 girls surrounding me.... this is going to be like.... with microphones attached and a chef's uniform too!

It's a big step for me to be doing this. I never thought that blogging could land me in this someday. what started off as a record of my culinary journey has led me to this far.

Friday, January 11, 2013

I love this fishcake, my hubby was so so. It has a slight crunch to it due to the arrowheads. It’s not the usual springy springy type. Reuben loved it and took 3 himself. This is also suitable for bentos.

I happen to have yellowtail fusilier(ikan tauhu) in my freezer, you can use mackerel if you want, but I think you might need lesser if you are using mackerel. The fish is there to for flavour only, the arrowhead provides texture. I might have been greedy to double the fish that what I should be using. LOL. You might want to try the original ratio that is 1 part fish to 4 parts arrowheads, so that you will taste more arrowhead.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

I was attracted to this recipe because of the use of Haw in this recipe. I didn't have that on hand and so I used Haw flakes instead, those round flat Chinese candy that we used to eat when we were kids. When I used that, I didn't need to add in sugar as well.

The original recipe didn't call for black vinegar, but I found that it lacked that edge... or maybe it's because I didn't use dried haw of which is a lot more tangy than haw flakes candy. Maybe next time I'll try it with dried haw.

For this dish, my hubby gladly ate up everything even the arrowheads of which normally he'll give a skip.

Friday, January 4, 2013

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2nd attempt: Way too generous until one can't see the noodles!

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This is one of the most famous noodles of Seremban. I had my first taste of it more than 15 years ago.
And when the idea of MFF was concieved, this was the first thing I wanted to cook for Negeri Sembilan. There are a few places to eat this in Seremban and the most popular was the one at the Wet Market.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

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hehehehe, I missed those scales on the fish's scalp

This is another favourite of mine of the Minang cuisine!

Normally ikan keli (catfish) and Tilapia is used, but then again, any fish can be used. Maybe these 2 fishes are more affordable. But catfishes are more 'buttery' compared to Tilapia. Whenever I see this dish being available at Padang Cuisine Restaurants, I can't help but take one. I must take one, LOL.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Negeri Sembilan is a very special state with a strong Minangkabau culture. It's nice to be born as a girl in a Minang family. They practise girl-power, LOL.... and you get to inherit, instead of the guys.

Besides being known for it's horned roof houses, it is famous for it's fiery dishes. It should be so fiery that you can feel your ears hissing, LOL. But then again, you can always tune it down. But that's how fiery it should be.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

This month has been hectic for me. Picking up the job of hosting this month was done rather hastily and I'm sorry that I didn't spend as much time preparing for it.

Even though many are busy preparing for Christmas and holiday mood is all around, I'm glad that that the entries this month is encouraging.

When I set the schedule... I purposely selected December for Pahang because I knew it'll be durian season, and true enough, this year, there was a bounty harvest. When durians are abundant and cheap, it's time to bake with them.

Even though Pahang has many interesting recipes to try, but there was indeed the popular few. And this month, I have sorted them according to dish... let the same dishes stay together :)

The Pahang Facebook event page has been having good response too, with non bloggers joining us in the event and Guangxi style chicken is the most popular among them. It's nice to spread some recipe ideas around and infect people with it, LOL. I hope more will be infected in the months to come.